Putting solar power in space seems like a good idea: no clouds, no haze, no night, so lots more power. The problem is that solar power plants are kind of heavy. Here's a new design for a space solar power plant that aims to overcome these issues. It's a flock (saving lots of structural weight) of mirrors concentrating sunlight onto a set of photovoltaic cells. The whole thing is built out of small components that are connected together into a huge structure using autonomous robots. Cool stuff!

(If you like picture's, there's a slide deck here. For the many resident geniuses here, here's the full 116 page PDF report. That should keep you from calling each other names far a while I'd hope.)

_________________Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhereWhat is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphereMachinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus

Meh. At the scales required to be commercially practical and worth the investment it will still be very large and thus expensive to lift to Earth orbit. I doubt this approach is that much more efficient that it becomes viable.

By the time this gets practical, either by the cost to lift to orbit is reduced or off-Earth manufacturing is established, then the per kwh mass/cost won't matter much. Such is the "Catch-22" problem we find ourselves. You can't build grandiose mega-structures like SBSP or beanstalks in space unless you have such mega-structures or the technology which supersedes and makes them obsolete...

Lifting mass to orbit has an energy cost, which translates into a financial cost. These are variable based on technological level (energy density). The better your technology the lower the cost.

The point at where the lift costs are low enough to make mega projects practicable is probably at the point of where you no longer need them. I.e. fusion power making SBSP a quaint notion and highly efficient spacecraft making a space elevator superfluous.

Putting solar power in space seems like a good idea: no clouds, no haze, no night, so lots more power. The problem is that solar power plants are kind of heavy. Here's a new design for a space solar power plant that aims to overcome these issues. It's a flock (saving lots of structural weight) of mirrors concentrating sunlight onto a set of photovoltaic cells. The whole thing is built out of small components that are connected together into a huge structure using autonomous robots. Cool stuff!

(If you like picture's, there's a slide deck here. For the many resident geniuses here, here's the full 116 page PDF report. That should keep you from calling each other names far a while I'd hope.)

I hope it is possible.. We need to boost our solar projects efficiency for pollution free energy.